All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[shooshoomanjoe]

In actual, real actions that were designed to try to tip elections...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...?ocid=msedgntp

So much for the Republicans' cry of "every legal vote should be counted".

[Mister Mets]

The changes made by DeSantis and other GOP leaders, however, would probably have been impossible *without* the gutting of the VRA by Roberts.

How so?

The Jasmine Brand? Seriously? That sounds like a line of scented candles sold at Bath & Body Works. Give me a break.

In his defense, the other articles to mention the Suit come from Rupert Murdoch related websites.

I think one issue with Xheight is that he comes from a very different frame of reference than most people here. It's a common outlook to make claims of whataboutism connecting liberal media figures to the Democratic establishment.

The specific point here is that it's one allegation. It may very well not be true.

Woah. That's some strong precedent regarding executive privilege. This means any administration, past or future, can't use it.

Not quite.

Executive privilege is more powerful for the incumbent. That'll last for a few years. Even then, future Presidents tend to take their own advantages into consideration. The Biden administration has agreed with some of Trump's claims of executive privilege.

This one also went further than previous claims.

Again that Time article is so instructive - are these names and operatives commonly known people? I couldn't name a single KStreet Lobbyist but they exist. Apart from the AFL-CIO character we know a name but clearly he mentions that he worked with others. PAC and other NGOs provide the perfect cover because in a certain regard they aren't under cover but have been working developing the mechanisms for years that allow for someone to print out a run of ballots from a database that some org had collected. Some more work and investigation needs to be done to unearth that turn of numbers and crucial to being done was that the perpetrators couldn't themselves be absolutely sure they would win by this stratagem just like a card cheat doesn't have a Flush up their sleeves like they do in movies to give themselves away. Card counters don't even see themselves as cheats particularly just deep thinking players. If I had the goods on the Steal I wouldn't be on a message board but compared to all the hyperbole and distortions I think I am doing a slight better with skepticism.

The Time article did not talk about anyone manufacturing fake ballots. It's about different organizations refusing to go with a bad-faith argument.

It also shows how any election-related coordination is hard to keep secret.

You're missing the point... it is not normal for any party's leadership to start headhunting based off of common sense, non-controversial votes like this. Especially while they're ignoring doing anything about of other members harassing or making death threats towards other members of Congress that would get anyone in any other workplace fired.

It's controversial and it's not common sense.

Parties tend to be strict about unity. Look at the pushback against Sinema and Manchin. With Sinema it shows that every time many on the left praised McCain for being a maverick, they were lying by omission by not mentioning that they would prefer a generic Democrat above all else. As for Manchin, it does seem hard to argue against him being one of the five most valuable members of Congress for Democrats.

Does this mean he will be arrested?

He'll surrender himself to authorities on Monday, and appear before court on that day.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...na-2021-11-12/

[Tendrin]

How so?

It would have been difficult to implement restrictive voting practices across just some of Florida with some counties still being held for pre-clearance, with Florida having to affirmatively show no discriminatory impact on voters. So, it is unlikely that this law would have passed pre-clearance muster, and a suppressive voting law that creates a 2-tier system, with some counties not having to have it because of the VRA, would be unlikely to survive a court challenge.

[Tami]

Oklahoma National Guard rejects Pentagon’s coronavirus vaccine mandate

The Oklahoma National Guard has rejected the Defense Department’s requirement for all service members to receive the coronavirus vaccine and will allow personnel to sidestep the policy with no repercussions, an order from the governor that could serve as a blueprint for other Republican-led states that have challenged Biden administration mandates.

Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, appointed this week by Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) as adjutant of the state’s 10,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen, on Thursday notified those under his command that they are not required to receive the vaccine and won’t be punished if they decline it.

It’s an extraordinary refusal of Pentagon policy by the general and follows Stitt’s written request to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin seeking suspension of the requirement for Guard personnel in the state.

“We will respond appropriately,” John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesperson, said of Stitt’s letter. “That said, Secretary Austin believes that a vaccinated force is a more ready force. That is why he has ordered mandatory vaccines for the total force, and that includes our National Guard, who contribute significantly to national missions at home and abroad.”

The governor installed Mancino after having removed the state’s prior adjutant, Maj. Gen. Michael C. Thompson, who has advocated for his troops to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and last month publicized having received a booster shot. Carly Atchison, a spokesperson for Stitt, said Thompson’s departure was unrelated to his stance on vaccine policy and that the governor had explored a change over the last few months.

The new vaccine policy, distributed the day after Thompson was relieved of his leadership post, was directed by the governor, Atchison said.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Oklahoma National Guard rejects Pentagon’s coronavirus vaccine mandate

I wonder if this will set a precedent of soldiers not obeying orders.

[worstblogever]

I wonder if this will set a precedent of soldiers not obeying orders.

Republicans like Louie Gohmert and Randy Weber are already falling all over themselves to defend Lt. Col. Scheller from any punishment he might receive after he plead guilty at his court martial for ignoring the military code of justice to openly criticize his orders regarding the evacuation of Afghanistan on social media.

You're only supposed to follow orders and be quiet about the orders you get if the president's Republican, it seems. Even if the orders he gives you are patently unconstitutional.

[Kirby101]

It would have been difficult to implement restrictive voting practices across just some of Florida with some counties still being held for pre-clearance, with Florida having to affirmatively show no discriminatory impact on voters. So, it is unlikely that this law would have passed pre-clearance muster, and a suppressive voting law that creates a 2-tier system, with some counties not having to have it because of the VRA, would be unlikely to survive a court challenge.

As I said, naive or lying.

[InformationGeek]

WBE, get a load of Roy being an *******.

“Dear government - Pay my student loans! Put me on my parents’ insurance! Pay me not to work while I mask up & lock down! - Sincerely, Cracker Barrel-mocking Millennial” (holding $8 Latte, in $100 athletic pants, riding $2000 Peloton + subscription)…

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Ralph Shortey, of the Oklahoma State Senate, whose highest profile bill that he wrote in his six years on the political scene was a measure inspired by an article Shortey read on a pro-life website (that lies) that would outlaw the potential use of fetuses in food products. That still isn’t a typo, and it’s still irrelevant as far as laws go, because there’s no way the FDA would approve such a product, and there are exactly zero food manufacturers looking to use human embryos in their products. Shortey has also written several obviously unconstitutional laws like ones that ignore the 14th Amendment’s existence or an outright attempt to abolish the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Lastly, Shortey is a big gun enthusiast, who recommends everybody have firearms readily available in case you are suddenly set upon by wild turkeys (which I’m wondering how much of that brand he’s drinking of before he shows up on the job) and bragging that he ignored the ban on carrying firearms in the Oklahoma state capitol. When we last left Ralph Shortey, he was trying to pass a completely insane bill to make it legal for cattle ranchers to shoot down drones flying over their property, and was appearing at some of the earliest campaign appearances of Donald Trump in Oklahoma... so you can thank him for giving the raging Cheeto golem political credibility from the start of his entry into the political race, citing his "excellent record on trade and finance" as all the reason people needed to support him as a candidate, overlooking that Donald Trump is not just a terrible human being, but his record on trade and finance involves bankruptcies and lawsuits and unpaid debtors galore. Our annual look at Ralph Shortey came to an abrupt end in 2017, because guess what? The supposed anti-gay Shortey got arrested for soliciting male child prostitutes, was found guilty, and sent to prison.



On this date in both 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published their first profile of Tennessee State Senator Paul Bailey, who has been a member of the Tennessee state legislature since first winning office back in 2014, and he has used that office to go about undertaking the important business of the good people of the Volunteer State to make sure that all of their license plates say “In God We Trust” on them, because we can’t go having automobiles rolling about the state without making sure they somehow acknowledge the existence of the Judeo-Christian deity, right? While he was at it, he also pushed for legislation to slap the same slogan on every school in the state, (which will give kids a sigh of relief that God is watching and they can trust him if their school gets shot up with all the gun control Bailey and Tennessee GOP oppose) and was one of many Tennessee Republicans who voted to make the Bible the state book, which is, y’know… not constitutional.

When he hasn’t been on deranged theocratic quests, Bailey also has been very busy sponsoring important bills like SB 1821, which would have made it legal for people in Tennessee to own pet skunks, and went out of his way to express his distaste with NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police violence by buying season tickets on the 50-yard line to Titans games and not showing up (they still have your money, moron).

He handles ALL the SERIOUS BUSINESS, YOU GUYS. Just look at some of this voting record:

• March 27th, 2014: Bailey votes for HB 937, a bill to prohibit the Medicaid expansion in Tennessee.
• February 3rd, 2015: Paul Bailey votes for Tennessee’s HB 995, a bill to legalize the concealed carry of firearms in public parks, just in time for Tennessee to host the annual NRA convention.
• February 12th, 2015: Bailey sponsors HB 1023, a bill inspired by the John Birch Society’s paranoia about fluoridated water, and restrict the amount of fluoridation in the drinking water in Tennessee.
• February 22nd, 2016: Paul Bailey votes for HSR 467, to plead with the Attorney General of the state to file a lawsuit over Syrian refugees being allowed to resettle Tennessee.
• April 4th, 2016: Bailey votes for the highly unconstitutional HB 615, a bill created by Tennessee Republicans to try and make the King James Bible the state book.
• April 23rd, 2018: Paul Bailey votes for HB 2381, to create a “monument to the unborn” in the Tennessee State Capitol, which is probably the most presumptuous example of a participation trophy you’ll ever find, giving a statue to anything that’s ever even pulled off gestating in the womb.

Now, we’re going to be frank, here… there are some nutty Republicans throughout the entire Tennessee state legislature, and CSGOPOTD has covered many, while acknowledging that there’s a level of “above and beyond the pale” that it takes to stand out enough to get our attention in the Volunteer State. Paul Bailey managed to make himself a known quantity to us back in early 2017, when shortly after the Trump administration’s first attempt at enacting a Muslim ban in the United States, thousands of protesters showed up in the state capitol to protest at the offices of Gov. Bill Haslam.

And Paul Bailey took to Twitter to claim that the thousands of people were all “paid protesters”. When the local media asked Bailey to back that claim up, he claimed he heard it from a “reliable source” who he could not name because of “security reasons”.

Bailey claimed that the real evidence of paid protesters was that they were all shipped to the capitol in buses, but there was just one problem with that theory, as well… the buses he cited were present not to bring in protesters… but legislators. And there was video of them being used as such.

In any event, Paul Bailey won re-election in 2018, and is now in place until 2022. He has continued to submit insanely partisan bills, including SB 2896, an attempt at censoring what kinds of books are available in public libraries (Hint: Many Tennessee Republicans have made efforts to ban books with LGBTQ content, or from gay authors, this would be aimed at that) and most recently in September of 2021, was trying to get a special session of the Tennessee state legislature called to ban any kind of Covid-19 mandates, be it by way of masks, vaccines, or social distancing.

It seems highly unlikely that in a conservative district in a red state that a Democrat will unseat Paul Bailey in 2022… but keep your fingers crossed that someone who is less of an extreme idiot comes to knock him off in the GOP Primary in about a year and a half.

[Mister Mets]

It would have been difficult to implement restrictive voting practices across just some of Florida with some counties still being held for pre-clearance, with Florida having to affirmatively show no discriminatory impact on voters. So, it is unlikely that this law would have passed pre-clearance muster, and a suppressive voting law that creates a 2-tier system, with some counties not having to have it because of the VRA, would be unlikely to survive a court challenge.

Thanks for responding. I don't want to assume what someone's views on a question of legal minutiae (albeit with potentially significant consequences) are.

I do agree that it would be politically complicated to pass a change in voting practices that applies to some districts and not others. I don't necessarily think this would be a burden that is impossible to overcome.

If Florida Republicans had to pass some two-tiered law due to restrictions on pre-clearance, this doesn't mean that the courts will reject it.

They did also have a few alternatives. They could pass a statewide law, and wait for courts to say that it can't apply to the five counties in question.

Or they could have asked the Trump-appointed Attorney General for preapproval.

As I said, naive or lying.

Not on point, actually, since the question was about procedural understanding rather than morality.

On the topic of morals, there may be a potential change in how people view elections, which has policy implications.

The general understanding was that things that make it easier to vote benefit Republicans, and things that make it tougher benefit Republicans.

But then Trump has been able to motivate a segment of voters who don't go out to the polls.

2020 was a record turnout year, and Republicans did beat expectations. If it weren't for own-goals on the right, Republicans would likely still have the Senate. Given how close the presidential race was, small things could've easily changed the outcome (the vaccine news coming out two weeks earlier, Trump having a better first-debate performance, etc.) The 2021 off-year elections had much better turnout than the ones in 2017, and Republicans did much better.

This can make ballot access a less politically loaded question. It may be a question for the secret congress, rather than having partisans figure out which sides benefit.

https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-ris...ance-of-secret

[Tendrin]

It's good to know you'll admit that a GOP AG would have ignored the law and would just grant pre-clearance anyway, Mets. <3

[Kirby101]

It's about Republicans passing laws for the purpose to suppress the vote. If you don't see that is why they are doing it, you are either naive or lying.

[Tami]

State Senator Who Fought Vaccine Mandate Stuck in El Salvador With COVID

state senator from Washington who opposed COVID vaccine mandates has appealed to his fellow GOP lawmakers to send monoclonal treatment to El Salvador where he tested positive for the disease.

The Republican Doug Ericksen, who represents the 42nd District in Whatcom County, has opposed the pandemic mitigation measures of Governor Jay Inslee and has sponsored legislation to protect those who have not been vaccinated.

In an email to Washington House and Senate Republican lawmakers, Ericksen said he had tested positive shortly after arrival in the central American country and added, "I cannot get back home," the Seattle Times reported.

He said he had a doctor who could administer the treatment "but the product is not available here. Do any of you have any ideas on how I could get the monoclonal antibodies sent to me here?" the message added.

The Times reported that it was not clear what efforts were being made regarding the lawmaker's request and that it was unclear why Ericksen was visiting El Salvador.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends against traveling to El Salvador unless fully vaccinated where COVID rates are high.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” ran a profile of Haley Barbour, who early in his career, was confronted with the knowledge that one of his aides had referred to African Americans as “coons”, and responded to that fact by telling the New York Times reporter who asked him about it that the aide “deserved to be reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks”. So it should come as little surprise that during his run for Mississippi governor in 2003, that he was featured on the website of the Neo-Confederate group, the Council of Conservative Citizens, and Barbour has been a staunch defender of the Confederate flag remaining a part of the “heritage” of the Mississippi state flag. Barbour also argued against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” because he thought gay soldiers would have amorous thoughts in the middle of a key firefight, funneled Hurricane Katrina relief money to his closest friends and allies, and controversially pardoned 208 violent criminals in his last 48 hours in office, and their full pardons also meant that the several rapists amongst that group would also be able to re-enter society without having to register as sex offenders. Barbour is still a force to be reckoned with in Mississippi politics, but these days does so as the “power behind the throne” rather than being elected in office himself.


In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and in 2019, and in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of Terry Baxter, a last-minute entry into the race for District 8 of the Iowa House of Representatives in the 2014 elections, getting thrown on the ballot as an emergency replacement for long-time incumbent Henry Rayhons. Only two months into his tenure that Baxter turned some heads when he sponsored a gun bill that would remove the age restriction Iowa has on gun ownership so toddlers could pack heat if their parents chose to allow it, and also sponsored a resolution to propose an Amendment to the Iowa state Constitution that would recognize the “right to life of every person at every stage of development” that sounds like Personhood, and a flagrant violation of the Supreme Court’s authority regarding the Roe v. Wade decision. Oh, and for whatever reason, he also submitted a bill outlaw professional midwifery in Iowa, which is a bizarre approach to someone so extremely "pro-life". Baxter took to social media to opine that the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling had “crucified both freedom of speech and the freedom of religion as guaranteed in our constitution” and added the alarmist lie that preaching from the Bible “can now be prosecuted as legally incorrect" as part of an extended rant on the subject.

Baxter has not calmed down since, either, having sponsored a bill to nullify the Environmental Protection Agency (Hint: you can’t nullify federal law, we had a Civil War over that), another to try and prevent the sale of fetal tissue after abortions, and another Personhood bill. He also voted a fetal heartbeat bill aimed at banning abortion at six weeks, and during debate on the floor of the Iowa House, blamed abortions for Iowa’s declining school enrollments, worker shortage and insufficient payments into Social Security. Suffice to say, he’s still a fanatic and in 2020, he continued his bigoted pursuit of anti-LGBTQ legislation, including a bill that targeted transgender children and tried banning them from participated in competitive school athletics.

Alas, Baxter’s district is rural, and that means he can easily be re-elected even during a year like 2020 with 75% of the vote.

Since our last look at Baxter, he has voted to prevent children in public school from being subject to mask mandates (i.e., “let the kids get sick, f*** ‘em") which tracks with the first reason we ever profiled him… his willingness to let kids die in the warped idea of what “freedom” is.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

State Senator Who Fought Vaccine Mandate Stuck in El Salvador With COVID

So, why was Ericksen in El Salvador in the first place? Perhaps he was looking to find horse dewormer on the cheap. I hope he's unable to get his hands on monoclonal antibodies and has to cool his heels down there until he sucks it up and has to take the vaccine.